ACE Poetry Workshop

I am a member of the ACE Poetry Workshop. This workshop is open to anyone. In the spirit of bringing together elements of the Cleveland poetry community, I would like to tell you all about this workshop. I look forward to learning from all of you about other poetry workshops and groups in the area.

The Association for Continuing Education (ACE) is a volunteer organization that provides continuing education programs in cooperation with Case Western Reserve University. Perhaps best known for its annual book sale in the Adelbert Gym (Lucky me, I found 2 Richard Brautigan books for $1 each at the sale last weekend!), ACE offers non-credit off-campus studies and senior scholar classes, as well as a creative writing program.

The ACE Poetry Workshop was started by Al Cahen in 1989. The first class had 4 people in it, including Al, who continues as a member of the group today, as does another of the original 4, Jean Crea Gordon. Al led the workshop until 1994, when Jenny Clark took over leadership of the group for a short time. Jenny also continues as a member. The group has been led for many years by Linda Tuthill.

The poetry workshop meets on Thursday afternoons for 2 hours. There are three 7-week sessions a year – fall and winter classes at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights and a spring/summer session at beautiful Squire Valleevue Farm in Hunting Valley. ACE charges a small fee for the workshop. Most sessions, there are 15-20 members. The numbers fluctuate some as people come and go from the group, which welcomes new members, including those who have never written before.

Depending upon the size of the group at any given session, we usually start with a writing exercise or a discussion of some aspect of poetry. Linda has been very creative with exercises, which have included writing about an object that she brings to class, picking words from a box and using them in a poem, and continuing a poem from a given first line. After the exercise, we share and discuss the poems that we each have brought to class, with enough copies for everyone.

I joined the ACE poetry group about 10 years ago. I hadn’t written much poetry since I was in school 20 years earlier, and I was looking for a supportive environment in which I could test my wings. I sure found it! I believe I’ve grown as a poet during my time in the group, which has nurtured me, sometimes pushed me, and often inspired me. As an added bonus, we have fun. We laugh a lot, sing on occasion, cry now and then, and share lives along with poems.

Why Blog? Why Me?

Ever since I jumped in and said, "I’ll blog," I’ve been asking myself why I did that? It’s not readily apparent because I’m not burning up with things to say, and I’m only peripherally affiliated with the community that reads this blog. But digging deeper to explore this issue within myself, I’ve discovered personal reasons for blogging that will certainly inform future posts. That is why I’ve decided to begin by explaining where I’m coming from.

I’ll start with the negatives, what this is NOT about for me. As I said, no burning things that I need to say. I already know what I think and feel about poetry, and I’m comfortable with that. Also, as I said, I don’t feel much sense of connection with this part of the poetry community. That, of course, has been my choice. I could go to far more readings and events than I do if that’s what I wanted. It’s not. I probably won’t have much to say about local events simply because I don’t go to many.

I’m going to digress for a paragraph or two to say something about the Cleveland poetry community, if we can even call it that. I belong to a group of poets that meets through CWRU Continuing Education. At any given time, we are a group of about 20 poets meeting weekly. In the many years that this group has existed, it has probably involved hundreds of local poets, many of whom come to monthly Sunday gatherings long after they’ve stopped coming to the weekly group. I’m going to guess that none of these hundreds of people read this blog. Not one. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)

I mention this as a small example of what I see as the broader nature of the "Cleveland poetry community." There really are multiple poetry communities that may or may not intersect at various points and may or may not have a few common interests. One of the things that I might hope for this little space is that it could become a place of intersection. (As the perpetual schoolchild I am, I’m visualizing Venn diagrams.) If local poets who are unfamiliar with each other’s works begin to interact here, that might be a way to feed our creative processes. And that, selfishly, is the primary reason why I’ve agreed to blog. I’m hoping that fresh interactions will stoke my creative fires and bring me pleasures.

There was once a discussion here about obligation to community. Personally, I don’t feel any, and I don’t feel any embarrassment about the lack. As I said, I can really only identify multiple smaller communities to begin with, and in any event, I believe those communities exist to serve my needs, not visa versa. I would not blog here if I wasn’t personally benefitting from it. If my participation also benefits others, that’s a nice side benefit, but not my purpose or intent, and surely not my duty.

So what I’m hoping for here are interactions that will stimulate me. Let me stress INTERACTIONS. I don’t need to hear my own voice. I can do that without blogging.

I’m thinking right now about 2 possible ways to blog that might lead to interaction. First, I’d enjoy something creative. Maybe writing a poem and asking for poetic responses to it, or writing a poem jointly by, perhaps, throwing out a line or two and asking for additions. Second, I have opinions and beliefs that will undoubtedly provoke discussion -- like the myths that poetry should always be read aloud, that poets need an audience, that poetry should be accessible. I’ll confess upfront, and perhaps this is my personal failing, I don’t like most poetry. It bores me – other than the occasional gem. I know I’m not the first poet to express negative feelings about poetry.

So I’ll be proceeding from here, on an irregular basis, as life and time allow. I welcome any ideas anyone has about ways to foster interactions, please keeping in mind that my ultimate purpose is to provide creative stimulation and pleasure for myself.

Oh – and I realize that I’ve got my head so far up my ass I could perform a colonoscopy on myself. I promise not to do this in future posts. I don’t want my polyps to gross you all out.